FOX4
A North Texas woman was sentenced to life in prison after admitting she smothered her young niece with a pillow.A Tarrant County jury found Mercia Sneed guilty of capital murder and injury to a child causing serious bodily harm for the 2019 death of 9-year-old Melodi Sneed.She was then given two life sentences without the possibility of parole."Today is about Melodi," Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Charlie Boulware said during closing arguments. "Melodi's family has waited seven years, seven long years. We are asking for a swift verdict for Melodi's family and for Melodi."Mansfield police arrested Sneed after they found the 9-year-old unresponsive in her family’s new home on Eagle Drive on July 27, 2019. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.According to prosecutors, the murder happened after all the other adults in the house had gone to bed and Melodi had fallen asleep on the couch in the game room. Sneed told her 13-year-old son to leave the room, and then she pre
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A Plano man charged with the murder of his estranged wife answered a police welfare check with a blood stain on his shirt, and the couple's young children were at home at the time of the alleged crime.Plano murder arrest37-year-old Jake Bigoni was arrested on Wednesday, August 12, after police conducted a welfare check for Eliana Bigoni, his estranged wife. Police found her body at Bigoni's apartment in the 4700 block of Charles Place.Bigoni was initially arrested and charged with felony abuse of a corpse. On Thursday, Plano Police obtained a murder warrant for Bigoni and booked him into the Collin County Jail.An arrest warrant details that police conducted a welfare check on Eliana after a friend reported she failed to show up at an 8:30 a.m. breakfast on Wednesday and was unable to contact her.The friend told police Eliana and Jake Bigoni had been separated and going through a divorce, and Eliana was going to pick the couple's 2 and 5-year-old children up that morning.Police were ale
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The suspect accused of killing an Everman ISD teacher's aide in a Thursday road rage shooting on I-20 in Fort Worth continued driving to work after the incident, an arrest affidavit states.Fort Worth road rage shootingFort Worth Police arrested 37-year-old Patrick Lawrence on Thursday afternoon.He has been charged with the murder of LaTaivia Davis. Davis was killed in a road rage shooting in the 3700 block of Highway I-20, which is just past the Hulen Mall near Benbrook.According to an arrest affidavit, police spoke to witnesses at the scene, who described hearing a loud bang and seeing a blue vehicle with its window down exiting I-20 towards Granbury Road.Davis' red vehicle was found with a bullet hole in the passenger window. Davis had been shot in her upper forearm and was pronounced deceased at the scene.Fort Worth Police cadets were brought in to search for evidence on I-20, and found a single bullet casing near Granbury Road where the shooting occurred.A witness's vehicle recorde
